Search results for: Southeast Coastal Area of Chinese.

Authors: S. Shirazian, M.R. Ghayamghamian, G.R. Nouri

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Bridges are one of the main components of transportation networks. They should be functional before and after earthquake for emergency services. Therefore we need to assess seismic performance of bridges under different seismic loadings. Fragility curve is one of the popular tools in seismic evaluations. The fragility curves are conditional probability statements, which give the probability of a bridge reaching or exceeding a particular damage level for a given intensity level. In this study, the seismic performance of a two-span simply supported concrete bridge is assessed. Due to usual lack of empirical data, the analytical fragility curve was developed by results of the dynamic analysis of bridge subjected to the different time histories in near-fault area.

Keywords: Fragility curve, Seismic behavior, Time historyanalysis, Transportation Network.

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Authors: Shu Hui

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Since 2010, the genre of comedy became predominant in film market in China. However, compared with the huge commercial success, these films received severe public criticism. These films are referred as trash (lan pian) by the public because of the fragment narrative, the non-professional photographing and advocating money warship. The paper aims to explain the contradictive phenomena between the higher box office and the lower mouth of word within hegemony theory. Four popular comedies that ranked top 20 in domestic revenue in the year the film released will be chosen to analyze their popularity in general. Differing from other popular films, these comedies’ popularity is generated from their disruptive pleasures instead of good stories or photographing. The destruction in Confucianism and socialism formulated the public consent or popularity, and caused the public criticism as well. Moreover, the happy-endings restore the normality at the superficial level.

Keywords: Confucianism, destruction, reconciliation, socialism.

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Authors: Jyh-Da Wei, Hsin-Chen Tsai

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This work presents a novel means of extracting fixedlength parameters from voice signals, such that words can be recognized in linear time. The power and the zero crossing rate are first calculated segment by segment from a voice signal; by doing so, two feature sequences are generated. We then construct an FIR system across these two sequences. The parameters of this FIR system, used as the input of a multilayer proceptron recognizer, can be derived by recursive LSE (least-square estimation), implying that the complexity of overall process is linear to the signal size. In the second part of this work, we introduce a weighting factor λ to emphasize recent input; therefore, we can further recognize continuous speech signals. Experiments employ the voice signals of numbers, from zero to nine, spoken in Mandarin Chinese. The proposed method is verified to recognize voice signals efficiently and accurately.

Keywords: Speech Recognition, FIR system, Recursive LSE, Multilayer Perceptron

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Authors: N. Choosri, N. Swadchaipong, T. Utistham, U. W. Hartley

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Performance of a cobalt doped sol-gel derived silica (Co/SiO2) catalyst for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) in slurryphase reactor was studied using paraffin wax as initial liquid media. The reactive mixed gas, hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) in a molar ratio of 2:1, was flowed at 50 ml/min. Braunauer-Emmett- Teller (BET) surface area and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were employed to characterize both the specific surface area and crystallinity of the catalyst, respectively. The reduction behavior of Co/SiO2 catalyst was investigated using the Temperature Programmmed Reduction (TPR) method. Operating temperatures were varied from 493 to 533K to find the optimum conditions to maximize liquid fuels production, gasoline and diesel.

Keywords: Fischer Tropsch synthesis, slurry phase, Co/SiO2, operating temperature.

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Authors: Matheus Borges Carneiro, Fabiane Letícia Lizarelli, José Carlos de Toledo

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The evolution of quality management by companies was strongly enabled by, among others, ISO 9001 certification, which is considered a crucial requirement for several customers. Likewise, performance measurement provides useful insights for companies to identify the reflection of their decision-making process on their improvement. One of the most used performance measurement models is the balanced scorecard (BSC), which uses four perspectives to address a firm’s performance: financial, internal process, customer satisfaction, and learning and growth. Since ISO 9001 certified firms are likely to measure their performance through BSC approach, it is important to verify whether the certificate influences the firm performance or not. Therefore, this paper aims to verify the impact of ISO 9001:2015 on Brazilian firms’ performance based on the BSC perspective. Hence, nine certified companies located in the Southeast region of Brazil were studied through a multiple case study approach. Within this study, it was possible to identify the positive impact of ISO 9001 on firms’ overall performance, and four Critical Success Factors (CSFs) were identified as relevant on the linkage among ISO 9001 and firms’ performance: employee involvement, top management, process management, and customer focus. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of interviews was limited to the quality manager specialist, and the sample was limited since several companies were closed during the period of the study. This study presents an in-depth analysis of how the relationship between ISO 9001 certification and firms’ performance in a developing country is.

Keywords: Balanced scorecard, Brazilian firms’ performance, critical success factors, ISO 9001 certification, performance measurement.

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Authors: Ivana Mokrá

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The article deals with modelling of the fire pragmatism in the area of military management and its experimental verification. Potential approaches are based on the synergy of mathematical and theoretical ideas, operational and tactical requirements and the military decision-making process. This issue has taken on importance in recent times, particularly with the increasing trend of digitized battlefield, the development of C4ISR systems and intention to streamline the command and control process at the lowest levels of command. From fundamental and philosophical point of view, these new approaches seek to significantly upgrade and enhance the decision-making process of the tactical commanders.

Keywords: Military management, decision-making process, strike modeling, experimental evaluation, pragmatism, tactical strike modeling

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Authors: Amir Gandomkar, Tahereh Soltani Gord faramarzi, Parisa Safaripour Chafi, Abdol-Reza Amani

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Temperature, humidity and precipitation in an area, are parameters proved influential in the climate of that area, and one should recognize them so that he can determine the climate of that area. Climate changes are of primary importance in climatology, and in recent years, have been of great concern to researchers and even politicians and organizations, for they can play an important role in social, political and economic activities. Even though the real cause of climate changes or their stability is not yet fully recognized, they are a matter of concern to researchers and their importance for countries has prompted them to investigate climate changes in different levels, especially in regional, national and continental level. This issue has less been investigated in our country. However, in recent years, there have been some researches and conferences on climate changes. This study is also in line with such researches and tries to investigate and analyze the trends of climate changes (temperature and precipitation) in Sefid-roud (the name of a river) basin. Three parameters of mean annual precipitation, temperature, and maximum and minimum temperatures in 36 synoptic and climatology stations in a statistical period of 49 years (1956-2005) in the stations of Sefid-roud basin were analyzed by Mann-Kendall test. The results obtained by data analysis show that climate changes are short term and have a trend. The analysis of mean temperature revealed that changes have a significantly rising trend, besides the precipitation has a significantly falling trend.

Keywords: Trend, Climate changes, Sefid-roud, Mann-Kendall

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Authors: Anirut Luadsong, Nitima Aschariyaphotha

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The spectral action balance equation is an equation that used to simulate short-crested wind-generated waves in shallow water areas such as coastal regions and inland waters. This equation consists of two spatial dimensions, wave direction, and wave frequency which can be solved by finite difference method. When this equation with dominating convection term are discretized using central differences, stability problems occur when the grid spacing is chosen too coarse. In this paper, we introduce the splitting upwind schemes for avoiding stability problems and prove that it is consistent to the upwind scheme with same accuracy. The splitting upwind schemes was adopted to split the wave spectral action balance equation into four onedimensional problems, which for each small problem obtains the independently tridiagonal linear systems. For each smaller system can be solved by direct or iterative methods at the same time which is very fast when performed by a multi-processor computer.

Keywords: upwind scheme, parallel algorithm, spectral action balance equation, splitting method.

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Authors: Mercan Efe Güney, Barış Parlatangiller, Melik Ayer

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In Turkey, while urban area boundaries are enlarged by making decisions on investment areas in cities, development plans are made according to government decisions, rather than scientific criteria. Even environment protection laws state that “if public interest is at stake”, areas under mandatory protection can be transformed into investment areas. This leads to destruction of valuable agricultural lands. Paper demonstrates loss of agricultural lands by superimposing plans, Suitability of the Lands for Agricultural Use and Google Earth Images in an exemplary settlement, and expresses that urban area boundaries should be included in legislation as an official boundary for all settlements.

Keywords: Agriculture, boundary, city planning, development plan, legislation.

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Authors: B. R. Faleye, M. I. Titocan, M. P. Ibitola

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Investigation was carried out at Opic Estate in Isheri-Osun River Basin environment using Electrical Resistivity method to study saltwater intrusion into a fresh water aquifer system from the proximal estuarine water body. The investigation is aimed at aquifer characterisation using electrical resistivity method in order to provide the depth to which fresh water fit for both domestic and industrial consumption. The 2D Electrical Resistivity and Vertical Electrical Resistivity techniques alongside Laboratory analysis of water samples obtained from the boreholes were adopted. Three traverses were investigated using Wenner and Pole-Dipole array with multi-electrode system consisting of 84 electrodes and a spread of 581 m, 664 m and 830 m were attained on the traverses. The main lithologies represented in the study area are Sand, Clay and Clayey Sand of which Sand constitutes the aquifer in the study area. Vertical Electrical Sounding data obtained at different lateral distance on the traverses have indicated that the water in the aquifer in the subsurface is brackish. Brackish water is represented by lowelectrical resistivity value signature while fresh water is characterized by relatively high electrical resistivity and in some regionfresh water is existent at depth greater than 200 m. Results of laboratory analysis of samples showed that the pH, Salinity, Total Dissolved Solid and Conductivity indicated existence of water with poor quality, indicating that salinity, TDS and Conductivity is higher in the Northern part of the study area. The 2D electrical resistivity and Vertical Electrical Sounding methods indicate that fresh water region is at ≥200m depth. Aquifers not fit for domestic use in the study area occur downwards to about 200 m in depth. In conclusion, it is recommended that wells should be sunkbeyond 220 m for the possible procurement of portable fresh water.

Keywords: 2D electrical resistivity, aquifer, brackish water, lithologies, freshwater, opic estate.

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Authors: Ryan Brading

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The results of Taiwan’s presidential election, which took place on 11 January 2020, were alarming for the Kuomintang (KMT). A party that was once the pillar of Taiwan’s institutional apparatus is now losing its direction. Since 2016, the inability of KMT to construct a winning presidential election campaign strategy has made its Chinese ancestry an obstacle in Taiwan’s vibrant and transparent democracy. The appearance of the little-known legislator Han Kuo-yu as the leadership alternative opened the possibility of reigniting the party. Han’s victory in the Kaohsiung mayoral election in November 2018 provided hope that Han could also win the presidency. Wrongly described as a populist, Han, however, was defeated in the January 2020 presidential race. This article analyses why Han is not a populist, his triumph in Kaohsiung, humiliation in running for the presidency and suffering a complete ‘loss of face’ when Kaohsiungers democratically ousted him from the mayoral post on 6 June 2020.

Keywords: Populism, ‘1992 Consensus’, Taiwan, youth vote, Han’s recall.

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Authors: B. F. Dada, B. S. Ewulo, M. A. Awodun, S. O. Ajayi

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Aggregate soil carbon distribution and stock in the soil in the form of a carbon pool is important for soil fertility and sequestration. The amount of carbon pool and other nutrients statues of the soil are to benefit plants, animal and the environment in the long run. This study was carried out at Akure North and South Local Government; the study area is one of the 18 Local Government Areas of Ondo State in the Southwest geo-political zone of Nigeria. The sites were divided into Map Grids and geo-referenced with Global Positioning System (GPS). Horizons were designated and morphological description carried out on the field. Pedons were characterized and classified according to USDA soil taxonomy. The local government area shares boundaries with; Ikere Local Government (LG) in the North, Ise Orun LG in the northwest, Ifedore LG in the northeast Akure South LG in the East, Ose LG in the South East, and Owo LG in the South. SOC-pool at Federal College of Agriculture topsoil horizon A2 is significantly higher than all horizons, 67.83 th⁻¹. The chemical properties of the pedons have shown that the soil is very strongly acidic to neutral reaction (4.68 – 6.73). The nutrients status of the soil topsoil A1 and A2 generally indicates that the soils have a low potential for retaining plant nutrients, and therefore call for adequate soil management.

Keywords: Soil organic carbon, horizon, pedon, Akure.

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Mohammad Hosseinzade

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Settlement and bearing capacity of a piled raft are the two important issues for the foundations of structures built on coastal areas from the geotechnical engineering point of view. Strip piled raft as a load carrying system can reduce the possible extensive consolidation settlements and improve bearing capacity of structures in soft ground. The aim of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of strip piled raft embedded in soft clay. The efficiency of bearing capacity of strip piled raft foundation has been evaluated numerically in two cases; in the first case, the cap is placed directly on the ground surface and in the second, the cap is placed above the ground. Regarding to the fact that the geotechnical parameters of the soft clay are considered at low level, low bearing capacity is expected. The length, diameter and axe-to-axe distance of piles were the parameters which varied in this study to find out how they affected the bearing capacity. Results indicate that increasing the length and the diameter of the piles increase the bearing capacity.

Keywords: Soft clay, Strip piled raft, Bearing capacity, Settlement.

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Authors: P.P. Diale, E. Muzenda, T.S. Matambo, D. Glasser, D. Hildebrandt, J. Zimba

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A vast array of biological materials, especially algae have received increasing attention for heavy metal removal. Algae have been proven to be cheaper, more effective for the removal of metallic elements in aqueous solutions. A fresh water algal strain was isolated from Zoo Lake, Johannesburg, South Africa and identified as Desmodesmus sp. This paper investigates the efficacy of Desmodesmus sp.in removing heavy metals contaminating the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area (WCA) water bodies. The biosorption data fitted the pseudo-second order and Langmuir isotherm models. The Langmuir maximum uptakes gave the sequence: Mn2+>Ni2+>Fe2+. The best results for kinetic study was obtained in concentration 120 ppm for Fe3+ and Mn2+, whilst for Ni2+ was at 20 ppm, which is about the same concentrations found in contaminated water in the WCA (Fe3+115 ppm, Mn2+ 121 ppm and Ni2+ 26.5 ppm).

Keywords: Biosorption, Green algae, Heavy metals, Remediation.

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Authors: B. L. Gadiga

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This study assesses the major ecological zones in Nigeria with the view to understanding the spatial pattern of vegetation zones and the implications on conservation within the period of sixteen (16) years. Satellite images used for this study were acquired from the SPOT-VEGETATION between 1998 and 2013. The annual NDVI images selected for this study were derived from SPOT-4 sensor and were acquired within the same season (November) in order to reduce differences in spectral reflectance due to seasonal variations. The images were sliced into five classes based on literatures and knowledge of the area (i.e. <0.16 Non-Vegetated areas; 0.16-0.22 Sahel Savannah; 0.22-0.40 Sudan Savannah, 0.40-0.47 Guinea Savannah and >0.47 Forest Zone). Classification of the 1998 and 2013 images into forested and non forested areas showed that forested area decrease from 511,691 km² in 1998 to 478,360 km² in 2013. Differencing change detection method was performed on 1998 and 2013 NDVI images to identify areas of ecological concern. The result shows that areas undergoing vegetation degradation covers an area of 73,062 km² while areas witnessing some form restoration cover an area of 86,315 km². The result also shows that there is a weak correlation between rainfall and the vegetation zones. The non-vegetated areas have a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.0088, Sahel Savannah belt 0.1988, Sudan Savannah belt -0.3343, Guinea Savannah belt 0.0328 and Forest belt 0.2635. The low correlation can be associated with the encroachment of the Sudan Savannah belt into the forest belt of South-eastern part of the country as revealed by the image analysis. The degradation of the forest vegetation is therefore responsible for the serious erosion problems witnessed in the South-east. The study recommends constant monitoring of vegetation and strict enforcement of environmental laws in the country.

Keywords: Vegetation, NDVI, SPOT-vegetation, ecology, degradation.

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Authors: Ogunduyile O. Oluwgbenga

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Recent advancements in sensor technologies and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have led to the development of cost-effective healthcare devices which can be used to monitor and analyse a person-s physiological parameters from remote locations. These advancements provides a unique opportunity to overcome current healthcare challenges of low quality service provisioning, lack of easy accessibility to service varieties, high costs of services and increasing population of the elderly experienced globally. This paper reports on a prototype implementation of an architecture that seamlessly integrates Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) with Web services (WS) to proactively collect physiological data of remote patients to recommend diagnostic services. Technologies based upon WBAN and WS can provide ubiquitous accessibility to a variety of services by allowing distributed healthcare resources to be massively reused to provide cost-effective services without individuals physically moving to the locations of those resources. In addition, these technologies can reduce costs of healthcare services by allowing individuals to access services to support their healthcare. The prototype uses WBAN body sensors implemented on arduino fio platforms to be worn by the patient and an android smart phone as a personal server. The physiological data are collected and uploaded through GPRS/internet to the Medical Health Server (MHS) to be analysed. The prototype monitors the activities, location and physiological parameters such as SpO2 and Heart Rate of the elderly and patients in rehabilitation. Medical practitioners would have real time access to the uploaded information through a web application.

Keywords: Android Smart phone, Arduino Fio, Web application server, Wireless Body Area Networks.

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Authors: J. Ramírez-Ortiz, J. Núñez Monreal

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Due to the growth of the urban area towards lands contaminated with ancient tails, in this work we evaluated if the leaching with calcium thiosulfate (CaS2O3) for the recovery of silver, gold and mercury from this soil, also dissolves arsenic, cadmium and lead; for this, we determined their quantity per each fraction of size of particle of the soil before and after the dissolution. Half of the soil samples were leached in the plant Beneficiadora de Jales del Centro, S. A. de C.V. and the rest of them remained in the laboratory. The ICP-OES technique was used to determine the amounts of arsenic, cadmium and lead, in the samples of both lots. The soil samples were collected in a neighboring area at El Lampotal, Vetagrande, Zacatecas, México, with an extension of 600 m2 at 22º52' 37.69'' N, 102º25' 11.73'' W. The amount of arsenic, cadmium and lead found in nonleached soil and for a particle size of 47 μm was 203.72±3.73, 33.63±1.31 and 3480.99±20.4 mg/kg respectively.

Keywords: Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, Soil, Tails.

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Authors: O. Alizadeh Sahraei, A. Khodadadi, Y. Mortazavi, M. Vesali Naseh, S. Mosadegh

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A composite made of plasma functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) coated with SnO2 was synthesized by sonochemical precipitation method. Thick layer of this nanocomposite material was used as ethanol sensor at low temperatures. The composite sensitivity for ethanol has increased by a factor of 2 at room temperature and by a factor of 13 at 250°C in comparison to that of pure SnO2. SEM image of nanocomposite material showed MWNTs were embedded in SnO2 matrix and also a higher surface area was observed in the presence of functionalized MWNTs. Greatly improved sensitivity of the composite material to ethanol can be attributed to new gas accessing passes through MWNTs and higher specific surface area.

Keywords: Carbon nanotube, Functionalized, Gas sensor, Low temperature, Nanocomposite, Tin oxide.

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Authors: Jakub Havlicek, Jiri Cajthaml

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The article describes the effect of the replacement of the used reference coordinate system in the georeferencing of an old map of Europe. The map was georeferenced into three types of projection – the equal-area conic (original cartographic projection), cylindrical Plate Carrée and cylindrical Mercator map projection. The map was georeferenced by means of the affine and the second-order polynomial transformation. The resulting georeferenced raster datasets from the Plate Carrée and Mercator projection were projected into the equal-area conic projection by means of projection equations. The output is the comparison of drawn graphics, the magnitude of standard deviations for individual projections and types of transformation.

Keywords: Georeferencing, reference coordinate system, transformation, standard deviation.

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Authors: Awais Adnan, Muhammad Nawaz, Sajid Anwar, Tamleek Ali, Muhammad Ali

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Needs of an efficient information retrieval in recent years in increased more then ever because of the frequent use of digital information in our life. We see a lot of work in the area of textual information but in multimedia information, we cannot find much progress. In text based information, new technology of data mining and data marts are now in working that were started from the basic concept of database some where in 1960. In image search and especially in image identification, computerized system at very initial stages. Even in the area of image search we cannot see much progress as in the case of text based search techniques. One main reason for this is the wide spread roots of image search where many area like artificial intelligence, statistics, image processing, pattern recognition play their role. Even human psychology and perception and cultural diversity also have their share for the design of a good and efficient image recognition and retrieval system. A new object based search technique is presented in this paper where object in the image are identified on the basis of their geometrical shapes and other features like color and texture where object-co-relation augments this search process. To be more focused on objects identification, simple images are selected for the work to reduce the role of segmentation in overall process however same technique can also be applied for other images.

Keywords: Object correlation, Geometrical shape, Color, texture, features, contents.

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Authors: Bhaskar Thakker, Anoop Lal Vyas

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Wrist pulse analysis for identification of health status is found in Ancient Indian as well as Chinese literature. The preprocessing of wrist pulse is necessary to remove outlier pulses and fluctuations prior to the analysis of pulse pressure signal. This paper discusses the identification of irregular pulses present in the pulse series and intricacies associated with the extraction of time domain pulse features. An approach of Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) has been utilized for the identification of outlier pulses in the wrist pulse series. The ambiguity present in the identification of pulse features is resolved with the help of first derivative of Ensemble Average of wrist pulse series. An algorithm for detecting tidal and dicrotic notch in individual wrist pulse segment is proposed.

Keywords: Wrist Pulse Segment, Ensemble Average, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), Pulse Similarity Vector.

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Authors: In Su Na, Gunwon Lee, Seiyong Kim

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This study analyzed the effect of area variables and economic variables on the length of each period of the project in order to analyze the effect of agreement rate on project implementation in housing renewal projects. In conclusion, as can be seen from these results, a low agreement rate may not translate into project promotion, and a higher agreement rate may not translate into project delay. The expectation of the policy is that the lower the agreement rate, the more projects would be promoted, but that is not the actual effect. From a policy consistency viewpoint, changing the agreement rate frequently, depending on the decision of the public, is not reasonable. The policy of using agreement rate as a necessary condition for project implementation should be reconsidered.

Keywords: Area and Economic Variables, Elapsed time, Housing Renewal Project.

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Authors: Amirmohsen Behjat, Aleck Ostry, Christina Miewald, Bernie Pauly

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Substantial research has indicated that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics’ of neighborhoods are strong determinants of food security. The aim of this study was to develop a Food Insecurity Neighborhood Index (FINI) based on the associated socioeconomic and demographic variables to identify the areas at potential risk of food insecurity in rural British Columbia (BC). Principle Component Analysis (PCA) technique was used to calculate the FINI for each rural Dissemination Area (DA) using the food security determinant variables from Canadian Census data. Using ArcGIS, the neighborhoods with the top quartile FINI values were classified as food insecure. The results of this study indicated that the most food insecure neighborhood with the highest FINI value of 99.1 was in the Bulkley-Nechako (central BC) area whereas the lowest FINI with the value of 2.97 was for a rural neighborhood in the Cowichan Valley area. In total, 98.049 (19%) of the rural population of British Columbians reside in high food insecure areas. Moreover, the distribution of food insecure neighborhoods was found to be strongly dependent on the degree of rurality in BC. In conclusion, the cluster of food insecure neighbourhoods was more pronounced in Central Coast, Mount Wadington, Peace River, Kootenay Boundary, and the Alberni-Clayoqout Regional Districts.

Keywords: Neighbourhood food insecurity index, socioeconomic and demographic determinants, principal component analysis, Canada Census, ArcGIS.

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Authors: Raksha Sharma, Vishnu Kant Soni, Manoj Kumar Mishra, Prachet Bhuyan

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Grid computing is a form of distributed computing that involves coordinating and sharing computational power, data storage and network resources across dynamic and geographically dispersed organizations. Scheduling onto the Grid is NP-complete, so there is no best scheduling algorithm for all grid computing systems. An alternative is to select an appropriate scheduling algorithm to use in a given grid environment because of the characteristics of the tasks, machines and network connectivity. Job and resource scheduling is one of the key research area in grid computing. The goal of scheduling is to achieve highest possible system throughput and to match the application need with the available computing resources. Motivation of the survey is to encourage the amateur researcher in the field of grid computing, so that they can understand easily the concept of scheduling and can contribute in developing more efficient scheduling algorithm. This will benefit interested researchers to carry out further work in this thrust area of research.

Keywords: Grid Computing, Job Scheduling, ResourceScheduling.

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Authors: Honghao Ren, Mariko Kondo

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This study investigates the perceptual features of Japanese obstruent geminates among Chinese learners of Japanese, focusing on the dialectal effect of the checked-tone, a syllable that ends in a stop consonant or a glottal stop, which is similar to Japanese obstruent geminates phonetically. In this study, 41 native speakers of Cantonese are divided into two groups based on their proficiency as well as learning period of Japanese. All stimuli employed in this study are made into C[p,k,s]+V[a,e,i] structure such as /apa/, /eke/, /isi/. Both original sounds and synthesized sounds are used in three different parts of this study. The results of the present study show that the checked-tone does have the positive effect on the perception of Japanese gemination. Furthermore, the proportion of closure duration in the entire word would be a more reliable and appropriate criterion in testing this kind of task.

Keywords: Dialectal differences, Cantonese learners of Japanese, acoustic experiment, closure duration.

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Authors: Kitimaporn Choochote, Roger Nurse

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The area of knowledge management has been in the highlight for enterprises over the past three decades. Many enterprises would like to have knowledge management and work hard to achieve it, however they are often confused about which direction to take to be successful and this point is especially true for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Many large companies have realized that knowledge is one of the richest resources which an organization possesses and knowledge management is a part of the foundation for a sustainable competitive advantage. Much work has been done in the area of knowledge management, but most of it has served large enterprises. This research provides a Model of knowledge management strategy for SMEs. It is based on analysis, insights and recommendations and it is presented so that SMEs in developing countries can easily understand and implement this model.

Keywords: Competitive advantage, Developing Country, Knowledge Management Strategy, Small and Medium Enterprise

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Authors: Geir Sigurðsson

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This paper compares ancient Daoist and Confucian approaches to the human body as a locus for learning, edification or personal cultivation. While pointing out some major differences between ancient Chinese and mainstream Western visions of the body, it seeks at the same time inspiration in some seminal Western phenomenological and post-structuralist writings, in particular from Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Pierre Bourdieu. By clarifying the somewhat dissimilar scopes of foci found in Daoist and Confucian philosophies with regard to the role of and attitude to the body, the conclusion is nevertheless that their approaches are comparable, and that both traditions take the physical body to play a vital role in the cultivation of excellence. Lastly, it will be argued that cosmological underpinnings prevent the Confucian li from being rigid and invariable and that it rather emerges as a flexible learning device to train through active embodiment a refined sensibility for one’s cultural environment.

Keywords: Body, Confucianism, Daoism, li, phenomenology, ritual.

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Authors: Marco Raciti Castelli, Ernesto Benini

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This work presents a comparison between the Annual Energy Output (AEO) of two commercial vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) for a low-wind urban site: both a drag-driven and a liftdriven concepts are examined in order to be installed on top of the new Via dei Giustinelli building, Trieste (Italy). The power-curves, taken from the product specification sheets, have been matched to the wind characteristics of the selected installation site. The influence of rotor swept area and rated power on the performance of the two proposed wind turbines have been examined in detail, achieving a correlation between rotor swept area, electrical generator size and wind distribution, to be used as a guideline for the calculation of the AEO.

Keywords: Annual Energy Output, micro-generationtechnology, urban environment, Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine

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Authors: Tahmina Akhter

Abstract:

In the present work, we make a study of the repercussions of the pandemic generated by COVID-19 in the real estate market, this disease has affected almost all sectors of the economy across different countries in the world, including the real estate markets. This documentary research, basically focused on the years 2021 and 2022, as we seek to focus on the strongest time of the pandemic. We carried out the study trying to take into account the repercussions throughout the world and that is why the data we analyze take into account information from all possible continents. Particularly in the US, Europe and China, where the COVID-19 impact has been of such proportions that it has fundamentally affected the housing market for middle-class housing. In addition, the pandemic has posed risks to investments in this market, due to the fact that companies in the sector have generated losses in certain cases; in the Chinese case, Evergrande, one of the largest companies in the sector, fell into default.

Keywords: COVID-19, real estate market, statistics of COVID-19, Evergrande Real Estate.

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Authors: Kamyar Kabirifar, Majid Azarniush, Behbood Maashkar

Abstract:

A proper house is a suitable residential area which provides comfort, proper accessibility, security, stability and permanence of structure, enough lighting, proper initial infrastructures and ventilation for its inhabitants and the most important of all, it should be proportional to the family’s financial power .

Saving energy and making optimal usage of it and also taking advantage of stable energies are the bases of green buildings. Making green building will help the health of a person living in it and in its surrounding. It will support the people and provoke their satisfaction. Not only it will bring about the raise of level of the quality of life for building inhabitants, but it will cause the promotion of quality level of life of the people living in the surrounding area and in general the society. 

 

Keywords: Quality of Life, Green Building, environment pollution, Sick Building.

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